The ten hottest years on record have all occurred within the last decade. This is one of the most disturbing facts resulting from The State of the Global Climate 2024, a report issued annually by the ), and published earlier this week. Each year during in the past decade was progressively worse than the previous year, 2024 being the worst so far.

2024 was also the year when the Paris Climate Summit agreed threshold of limiting the temperature increase to not more than 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels was breached.

Year in year out we have witnessed and at times also directly experienced extremes of weather. What was a rare weather event, at times seems to be the new normal. It seems ages ago since we had the last real winter in Malta and Gozo. Yet summer seems to be extending continuously into the other months. It starts earlier and last longer. The weather gets warmer earlier and for much longer stretches. It never seems to get cold any more. The seasons are changing. In turn this is having an impact on the products of nature: differences in both the quality and the quantity of nature's produce is worrying, year in year out.

Agriculture is one of the areas heavily impacted as a result of the ever-changing rainfall pattern as well as the temperature changes.

The weather is generally being tropicalised. As a result, it is inevitable that eventually this will mean new diseases borne by insects which, so far are not resident in the Maltese islands. These will be the new immigrants.

This week we were informed of the agreement between Transport Malta and Carnival Cruises Corporation. Carnival Cruises will be making use of the shore-to-ship energy infrastructure recently installed in our Grand Harbour after a substantial investment of EU funds. This is good news and will be of considerable help in reducing the carbon footprint of Malta's tourism. As a result, this will be contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the residential communities around the Grand Harbour. Hopefully, in the not too-distant future the shore-to-ship facility at the Birżebbuġa Freeport Terminal will also start functioning, as a result also improving the quality of life of Birżebbuġa and Marsaxlokk residents.

Now this is what we call a low-lying-fruit. That is, the result being obtained, while always welcome, did not require a lot of effort: even the funds were easily available for our use through the much-maligned Brussels.

The real effort in addressing climate change is when tough decisions are required. Those tough decisions which government is consistently reluctant to address.

Earlier this week the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pointed out the obvious: the need to reduce car use in the Maltese islands. The IMF has emphasised that this could be done through addressing the fuel subsidies as well as through vehicle taxation and through the internalisation of parking costs. This is nothing new and has been circulating in the public debate, yet government stubbornly, continuously refuses to act.

We need a transport policy which makes sense. One which reduces private car dependency and leads to a modal shift to alternative modes of transport. In addition to the measures pointed out by the IMF it is also imperative that the heavy investment in road infrastructure shifts away from the development of new roads as this is an additional factor contributing to the continuous increase of private cars on our roads.

Transport is increasingly one of Malta's major contributors to climate change. It is the area which if properly managed could substantially reduce Malta's carbon footprint as well as considerably improve everyone's quality of life.

An architect and civil engineer, the author is a former Chairperson of ADPD-The Green Party in Malta.  [email protected] ,   http://carmelcacopardo.wordpress.com